Tag: MANPADS

Ukrainian Airlines flight PS752 crashed after takeoff from Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport on Wednesday, killing everyone on board. Information is not yet complete, but if it was shot down by a missile – as some early evidence suggests – Iran should be held accountable.

Deployed in the Eastern Ghouta region near Damascus, the Russian modern 9K333 Verba man-portable air defense system (MANPADS) hit a drone used by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham terrorist group to shell populated areas of the Syrian capital, including the Russian embassy. The attack occurred on August 3. The de-escalation zone was announced in Eastern Ghouta on August 2 but the terrorist group did not comply.

Congress has quietly added a provision to the renewal of the National Defense Authorization Act that would leave the door open for the U.S. government to send anti-aircraft missiles to militants in Syria. This comes as President Obama is further lifting restrictions on providing weapons and other military support to Syrian rebels…

What is going on in Syria? On the one hand, there was a temporary «ceasefire» to mark Eid al-Fitr and the end of Ramadan. John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said there were discussions underway to extend it. Since the United States did not support the previous February ceasefire, one has to suppose that Kerry’s comments were just American jive. On the other hand, I put the word ceasefire in quotation marks because there appears to be heavy fighting underway just about everywhere in Syria. A Russian helicopter, for example, was shot down last Saturday by jihadists near Palmyra. Were they using American MANPADS?..

Traditionally Russia is ranked among world's leading manufacturers of air defense weapons. Here is another proof of this fact. The 9K333 Verba is Russia’s newest man-portable, shoulder-fired air defense missile system designed to detect and destroy unmanned aerial vehicles, cruise missiles and other low-flying air targets…

Dr Christina Lin, a leading young scholar on jihadist groups, opens her April 8th commentary at Asia Times: «In a blunder reeking of the fallout caused by supplying Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to 1980s mujahideen in Afghanistan, civilian airline passengers are now under threat from Syrian jihadists armed with portable surface-to-air missiles (MANPADS).